IELTS Writing Task 2 essay with model answer

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic

Some people think that children should learn how to compete, but others think that children should be taught to cooperate to become more useful adults. Express some reasons for both views and give your own opinion.

Write at least 250 words.

Model Answer:

It is a highly debatable issue whether children should be taught to compete or cooperate in life. In my opinion, both competition and cooperation are important virtues of life. What is more important is to teach where they need to compete and where they need to cooperate.

Competition is very important in life. Children can be taught to compete when they prepare for exams or play any games. They have to learn to compete to excel in studies or win an athletic event. This rectitude comes in handy in adult life. For example, when they do any business, they need to compete with other businessmen to succeed. And, at the same time, successful businessmen are useful adults of society who must learn how to extend their cooperation for various noble causes.

To elaborate, there are many fields where cooperation is needed. Children can be taught this virtue when they play team sports like cricket and hockey. Teachers can teach this value when they give group assignments to students. This quality helps students become useful adults in their life. For instance, software developers need to work as a team to bring benefits to all of us who use technology nowadays.

There are also situations where students need to compete and cooperate simultaneously. For example, when children play team sports, they need to cooperate with their team members to compete with the opposite team. As we all know, today’s era is highly competitive and the big planet earth has shrunken to a small global village. Our Indian automobile industries have merged to compete with German and Japanese industries. So, competition and cooperation go hand in hand.

To put it in a nutshell, I pen down saying that, children have to be taught both how to compete as well as cooperate with others, and more importantly, these students must know where in life they have to apply these attributes.